F-16 Aircraft Database

At the time the unit was the 63TFTS assigned to TAC. Assigned as an ADCC to 509, but spent more time working our 'B'usses, mostly [serial]78-0103[/serial] and [serial]80-0628[/serial]. I had preflighted 509 the night before it landed sans NLG. Was having lunch in the dorm prior to getting ready for work when a couple of guys from days walked in and said "Mike, your jet just crashed, we're all going to the hospital for drug tests." Without any more information on the 10 minute ride up to the hospital I was in shock, wondering about the pilot (we'd just had a new class start, so he was likely a young guy) and the jet. It turned to relief when we pulled up to the door and saw the pilot with a big smile sitting on the steps "I knew you guys were coming, so I thought we'd just all do this together..." The cause was a broken wire in the MLG well caused by a bad wire stripping tool and a defective NLG retract actuator. If we'd had the parts on hand the jet could have been repaired in an hour or two. The worst part was that the runway 'sanded off' the bottom 3-4" of the NLG door - where my name, as one of the ADCC's, was stenciled.